2011-05-05 08:01

BEIJING - China's fragile coastal ecosystems are severely threatened by human activities, and pollution and environmental degradation have created a "grave situation", according to a report released by the State Oceanic Administration.

Since the 1990s, more than 20,000 hectares of wetland in China have disappeared every year on average, according to the 2011 China Ocean Development Report, released on April 29 by the administration's China Institute for Marine Affairs.

Nearly 57 percent of the country's intertidal wetland has disappeared, and the wetlands of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea have lost 30 to 90 percent of their natural functions, it said.

Wetlands function as a valuable means of controlling floods and of filtering water. They also provide a livelihood for millions of people who live within and near them.

The report said that more than 20 square kilometers in the coastal areas near Huangjiabu in Zhejiang province have no marine life due to huge amounts of pollutants.

According to the report, which details the results of monitoring in 2009, 337 out of 457 coastal outlets discharge pollutants into the sea in amounts exceeding national standards. The report also found that the number of different types of industrial, agricultural and air pollutants had increased and that the pollutants contained a greater amount of toxic substances.

Qiu Jun, who helped write the report, said the waters near large coastal cities and other highly developed areas are suffering the most serious effects from pollution, which limited the sustainability of economic development in the coastal areas.

Sun Zhihui, former head of the State Oceanic Administration, warned that severe marine pollution has been caused by the country's fast economic development, in particular by land reclamation from the sea.

The statistics from the administration showed from 1990 to 2008, the total area of reclaimed land increased from 8,241 sq km to 13,380 sq km, and the annual average increase was at least 285 sq km.

A five-year survey made by the administration revealed that 806 islands have disappeared in recent years as a result of human actions and natural erosion, and the reclamation of land from the sea was the top cause, said Xia Xiaoming, researcher of the Second Institute of Oceanography.

China's coastal environment has also been the victim of large-scale draining efforts for real estate development and port or harbor construction.

The cost of building offshore projects in the country reached 66 million yuan ($10.2 million) in 2009, which increased by 32 percent from 2008.

The 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), approved by the National People's Congress in early March, laid out measures to prevent over-exploration of marine resources and to stop excessive land reclamation.